Wildlife funding bill considered by Congress

[Laura Bies]

A bill recently introduced in the U.S. House would provide funding to states for wildlife management and conservation. The America's Wildlife Habitat Conservation Act, would provide $300 million annually for five years, offset by rescinding $1.4 billion in unspent funds, with a focus on state-led conservation efforts. It would also amend some provisions of the Endangered Species Act.

The House Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on the America's Wildlife Habitat Conservation Act, earlier this week. View the recording and read witness statements here.  A representative of the National Audubon Society testified at the hearing, stressing the importance of permanent and dedicated funding for wildlife management and conservation.

The bill is similar to the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, landmark legislation that would provide permanent, reliable funding to states and tribes to assist in their efforts to conserve, restore. A key different is that funding from the Recovering America's Wildlife Act would be permanent and dedicated funding. RAWA would amend the Pittman-Robertson Act and provide an additional $1.3 billion per year for states and territories and $97.5 million per year for tribes, allowing them to implement state and tribal wildlife action plans which designed to conserve over 12,000 species of the greatest conservation need.  Currently, Pittman-Robertson program collects about $1 billion a year from excise taxes on sporting goods and related products and distributes it to states. That funding mechanism would remain unchanged by RAWA.

RAWA, first introduced in 2016, was passed by the House of Representatives last year and has bipartisan support in the Senate as well, but lawmakers could not decide how to pay for the bill, preventing its passage.

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